Robert B. Marks is Professor of History and Environmental Studies at Whittier College in Whittier, California. He is the author most recently of China: Its Environment and History (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013), from which this essay is drawn. Translated and published in Chinese as 马立博著 (关永强 高丽洁译). 中国环境史:从史前到现代. 中国人民大学出版社·北京· 2015